Public speaking–do you love it? If you don’t LOVE it, then you are probably part of the 75% of the population who have anxiety around this topic. In coaching, public speaking is a big part of what we do; it can be a part of marketing your business and building your credibility. Today’s guest has some expert tips and extremely practical advice on improving your public speaking and eliminating the anxiety around it.

Suzette Plaisance Bryan, Ph. D. is here to share specific strategies and tools about what she has learned from neuroscience about how to overcome anxiety and tension about speaking. She teaches us how we can be effective and motivational in our speaking. Suzette has an extensive background in human resources, leadership development, corporate training, and development. She is a former tenured college professor and has taught this very topic, as well as been a published author and speaker around the world. She co-authored Scripts and Communications for Relationships, published by Peter Lang Publishing. Suzette lives in Dallas with her husband and two dogs. In today’s show, she gives us so many strategies and tools in bringing our message forward to bring value to the world.

Show Highlights:

Suzette’s work in neuroscience and a study on brain health at the molecular level

How Suzette spent her morning—in an MRI machine for scientific research

How your brain is changing all the time

Why this public speaking skill is helpful to the world of coaching

The importance of writing down an outline and practicing your speech to create neuro-connections in your brain

Why your content should have three distinct parts: intro, body, and conclusion, along with good transitions

Why less IS more–have 3-5 pieces of information and don’t overwhelm your audience

When a speaker gets stuck and repeats statements—the quickest way to lose your audience

You can FEEL when your audience warms up to your presentation

How your heart communicates with your brain

How speakers connect with an audience: find out something about them and compliment them, smile, breathe “from your heart,” visit the venue beforehand, and stand and stride purposefully and confidently,

“Goldilocks brain”–when you have the exact amount of neurochemicals that are “just right”

Mirror neurons–why the audience will feel the speaker’s anxiety

How someone else’s nervousness and anxiety will have an effect on you

How to transition into the closing and prepare the audience

Don’t leave the audience wondering if there was something else you wanted to say